382 On Chemical Disinfectants, 



chlorine gas were now introduced into the inert solution, and 

 the same animal substances replunged into it afterwards, when 

 all effluvia of putridity immediately vanished. 



As a further corroboration of this curious fact, which, though 

 completely overlooked by Labarraque, and all those who fol-^ 

 lowed him, is, nevertheless, the main spring of the discovery, I 

 tried the effect of distilled water holding in solution two measures 

 of chlorine alone, when precisely the same disinfecting results 

 took place on the putrid animal matter employed that had been 

 observed in the first experiment ; with this difference, however, 

 that during the operation the escape of the chlorine gas was so 

 considerable as to become insupportable to the bystanders and 

 myself, producing cough, difficulty of respiration, and head-ache. 



This difference in the mode of acting on the part of chlorine, 

 placed under apparently similar circumstances, is curious, and 

 requires explanation. What that difference depends on — what 

 is the modus operandi of the disinfecting liquids on putrid 

 animal matter — what the compounds are which are formed in 

 consequence of that action — and how that action may be made 

 available for the analysis of infected air ; — lastly, what new and 

 easier processes might be devised to obtain so valuable an 

 agent, are points of great importance, which, after a laborious 

 inquiry, I have succeeded in ascertaining, but which I must 

 reserve for a future communication. 



In the meanwhile, I think myself entitled to recommend the 

 abolishing of the incorrect name applied to the liquid under 

 consideration, by the discoverer ; and to propose that of " Dis- 

 infecting liquid of Soda" instead; or, when prescribing in 

 Latin, a denomination that shall record the name of the in- 

 ventor, such as " Liquor liabarraquii chloro-sodaicus." 



Extract of a Letter from Captain Sabine to Professor Renwickt 

 of Columbia College, New York, respecting the Report on 

 the subject of the Weights and Measures of the State of 

 New York, printed in our last number, 



** In consequence of my absence from England, I did not see 

 your report on the subject of the weights and measures of New 

 York, as you intended I should have done, before its publican 

 tion in the last number of the Institution Journal. 



